Yahoo! Mail Blog
The latest scoop on Yahoo! Mail product updates, new releases, bug fixes,

Today’s post comes from reader suggestion (who will have to remain anonymous, because I seem to have misplaced his email, ping, message from Facebook, LinkedIn etc.), who reminded me that, ‘with all of the fantastic new updates we’ve been releasing lately, like the new social features and Apps in Yahoo! Mail, we sometimes overlook the great features that have been around for ages.’ Features which make Yahoo! Mail the best (not just my opinion) email service around. One such feature is the ability to add an extra mail address to your Yahoo! Mail account.

You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers…

What is it?
An extra mail address is a second Yahoo! email address that is linked to your existing Yahoo! Mail account. It’s another email address, just like your primary one, that you can use to send and receive mail from, while using the exact same Inbox you’re used to. You can even make it the default address that you send email from if you want.

Why do I want one?
I can think of a number of things that you could use the extra mail address for. Here’s just a couple:

• Let’s say you’re looking for a new job. If you originally signed up for a mail address like barry_manilow_fan@yahoo.com, you might think twice about putting that at the top of your resume. You can create an extra mail address that is more appropriate for a job search or other business correspondence.
• Maybe you just want to have a second email address. There’s a great deal of convenience in being able to check for new mail without having to login and out of two separate accounts.

Sounds good, how do I get one?
It’s easy to set up and start using. From your Yahoo! Mail account click ‘Options’ then ‘Mail Options’ in the upper-right part of your Mailbox. From the Mail Options screen click ‘Accounts’ then ‘Add or edit an Account’. At the bottom of the new window click the ‘Get Started’ link under ‘Extra Mail Address’.

That sounds easy, but I’m still not sure. What else?

• You can easily send from this extra email address by selecting it from the pull-down menu when you compose a new message.
• You can sign in to your Yahoo! Mail (or anywhere else on Yahoo!) using the extra email address with your existing password.
• You can even make the extra email address the default for sending new mail. Just set it as the default in the ‘Mail Accounts’ section of Mail Options.

I really hope you try out this feature. If you get stuck, or want to find out more information about extra email addresses in Yahoo! Mail, take a look at our help pages.

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Yahoo! web lifestyle editor, Heather Cabot, was a guest on the Martha Stewart show last Friday. You might remember Heather from her appearance on The View from the Bay last year. Martha’s show on social networking and technology featured guests David Pogue from the New York Times and Biz Stone from Twitter. Heather was on to highlight how Yahoo! makes it easy to bring everything that matters to you in one place.

The beginning of Heather’s segment includes a tour of our newly designed Homepage. But I’m probably a little biased in thinking the best part was when Heather and Martha opened up Yahoo! Mail to highlight some of the open and social features that help you to be more productive and stay better connected. I have to agree with Martha that Picnik is a really great Yahoo! Mail App.

Here’s a link to the videos available from the show on Friday. http://www.marthastewart.com/show/the-martha-stewart-show/the-tech-show. Heather’s segment is number 4.

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The all-new version of Yahoo! Mail is full of time-saving features that make your life easier and more productive. Today I want to share a quick tip for adding new Contacts that I find very useful. Let’s say you receive an email from someone that’s not already in your list of Contacts, to add them to your Addressbook is easy. Here’s how…

There are actually two very easy ways to add new Contacts using any email message that is in your Mailbox. This first one is my preferred method. All you have to do is click the email message and drag it across over the ‘Contacts’ folder on the left side of your Mailbox.

An alternative way is to right-click on the email message and select ‘Add Sender to Contacts’ from the short-cut menu.

Which ever method you choose a new dialog box will pop open with the name and email address pre-populated with the information contained in the email. Just confirm that it’s correct and click ‘Save’. Now your new contact is added to your Addressbook.

It’s just that easy.

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With Yahoo! Mail offering unlimited storage, I find myself using the delete button less and less these days. And with the ability to move messages to folders with one keystroke (in the all-new version of Mail), it’s more important than ever to be able to easily and quickly find messages.

Simple Searching
With just a simple keyword search, like “orders”, we give you the option to filter search results by a whole host of options. Whether you want to narrow your results by Date, Folder, Sender etc. they are all listed for you in a very nice, clickable, list (right-hand side in the new Mail, left-hand side of Classic Mail). But that just scratches the surface of what you can do.

Shortcuts
For the more advanced searchers of the world (plus those who prefer typing to clicking), you can filter your searches from directly within the search box. Think of the filters as little search shortcuts for your Mailbox.

Let’s take a look at an example:
Say you want to find all of your emails in your Mailbox with the subject pictures?
- In the search box, type: subject:pictures

But you have a ton of emails with pictures. You want to find that fantastic picture from Dave and you remember he called it cool.
- In the search box, type: subject:”cool picture” from:dave

On the other hand, if lot’s of people send you cool pics, but you’ve never really liked the ones that Dave sends you, you can hide Dave’s messages from the search results using the ‘-’ (dash) to omit his results
- In the search box, type: subject:”cool pictures” –from:dave

Attachments
Did you know that you can search for different types of attachments using search in Yahoo! Mail? And even better, you can search INSIDE attachments. Yes, that’s right, I said inside. I know what you’re saying – “That’s not possible from a web mail provider.” Well it is possible, and you can do search inside Word documents, Excel and PDFs with Yahoo! Mail. I’m not aware of any other free Web mail provider that does that!

Let’s use one of those shortcuts.
- In the search box, type: from:dave attachment:”restaurant list”

Why do I care about this? Well, since Dave sends so many emails with attachments to me, being able to search inside attachments I can find the document he sent me with his restaurant recommendations. And we even give a little preview and highlight the part of the document with the search terms.

More with Attachments
There are plenty of other things you can do with the attachment shortcuts. You are able to search for an attachment name, type and number of attachments. Want to see a list of boarding pass PDFs you have received from American after checking in?
- In the search box, type: from:american attachmenttype:pdf

Further reading
If any of this is slightly confusing or you want to learn more, we’ve created some tutorials. Tutorial topics include: Quick Searches, Searching for Messages, Narrowing Search Results. And there is a complete list of these Yahoo Mail search shortcuts in our help pages.

Now if only I could find my car keys…

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Last week we took a look at some of the keyboard shortcuts available in the all-new Yahoo! Mail. We looked at the basics: opening and closing a message, composing and sending, etc. Today I wanted to dive a little deeper and look at some shortcuts that really make Yahoo! Mail great and you incredibly productive.

Moving messages with a single keystroke:
Do you use personal folders to keep your mailbox organized? Did you know that the numbers 1-9 on your keyboard correspond to the first 9 of your folders? So when you’re finished reading a message, just press the right number and off it goes. No need to click and drag.

Here are some other quick tips for moving messages:

• You can see which number your folder is by clicking the ‘Move’ button at the top of your mailbox. Your folders are listed in numerical order
• If you want to make it even easier, just rename your folders and put a number in front of the folder name (i.e. 1 Family, 2 Orders, etc).
• If you like the idea of renaming folders use the F2 key to rename a folder
• Finally, 0 (zero) moves a message from any folder back to the Inbox
• We’ve stopped at 9. So if you want to move a message to the 10th folder in your list, you’ll have to grab that mouse.

Navigate your mailbox without a mouse:
One of the features that I think makes the new Yahoo! Mail so great is the ability to have multiple messages (tabs) open at the same time from right inside your mailbox. Using CTRL+] (that’s the right bracket key) will move from one tab to another (going from left to right). Need to go the other direction CTRL+[ (that’s the left bracket key).

No need to stop there. Hitting TAB will let your navigate all around your Mailbox. This time SHIFT+TAB sends you the other way around. Looking at your Inbox? Need to perform a search? Just hit SHIFT+TAB and your cursor goes into the search box. Type your query and hit Enter.

Just a reminder that the complete list of shortcuts can be found on our help site. And don’t forget you can always look at the tool-tips when you mouse over a link.

I hope you find these features as useful as I do. Every time I find that I have to use an email that isn’t Yahoo Mail (for testing purposes only, of course) I’m always disappointed when I can’t use my keyboard.

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Now, I know, for most, when using a computer reaching for the mouse is almost second nature. You probably don’t even realize you’re doing it. I grew up in the age of DOS, if you can believe it (certainly shows you what a dinosaur I am). My first computer didn’t come with a mouse, so I learned to use a computer using nothing but a keyboard. Which is why – for me – the keyboard shortcuts in the all-new version of Yahoo! mail are fantastic. I can go almost a whole session without ever having to reach for the mouse. Who needs drag and drop, or point and click, when you can do the exact same thing with a single keystroke?

I challenge you to go a whole session of email reading and writing without reaching for that mouse and only using Yahoo! Mail’s keyboard shortcut. Can’t be done you say? Assuming you already have the all-new version of Yahoo! mail open, let’s give it a try. (Why not use Alt-Tab to get there?)

Got a new message you want to read? Wait – don’t do it – don’t reach for that mouse.

• Just use your up and down arrows on your keyboard until you’ve highlighted the message you want to read and hit ‘Enter‘. BAM!! – the message opens in a new tab.
• Done reading? Hit the escape – ‘Esc‘ – key and the message closes.
• Want to delete the message? Hit the ‘Delete‘ key. Say goodbye to that message.

Want to write a new message? Keep you hands off that mouse!

• If you are looking at your Inbox, just hit the ‘n’ key. Open sesame. A new message opens and your cursor is in the To: field.
• Start typing a contact and Auto-complete takes over. Highlight the right contact from the list using the up or down arrows and hit ‘Tab’. That’s it you’ve entered a contact.
• Need another? Repeat above.
• Need a Cc:? Hit ‘Tab’ and presto, you’re in the Cc: field. Just do the same thing you just did in the To: field.
• Hit ‘Tab’ again and you’re in the Subject: field.
• Hit ‘Tab’ again to get to the Message body.
• Finished composing your email already? Still no need for that mouse. On your keyboard, just press and hold Control and then Enter (Ctrl+Enter) and away it goes. (That shortcut should look familiar to MS Outlook users)

Those are two of the things that we do most with email (reading and writing), completed without touching that mouse. I know! It IS very cool!! And I guarantee – once you get used to it – it’s quicker and easier to do than the same with a mouse.

There’s a lot more keyboard shortcuts than the ones above. You can do almost everything in Yahoo! Mail with a single keystroke. It’s easy to find out what they are too. You can navigate on over to this help page, which lists all the available keyboard shortcuts. Alternatively, you can use your mouse (the last time you’ll need to touch that, I promise) and the menus and mouse-overs show you what keystroke does the same thing. Take a look at the screenshots below to see which letters denote the equivalent keyboard shortcut.

So what can’t you accomplish with the keyboard? To be honest, not much. I guess the main things that I would like to see a keyboard shortcut for are spell checking, attaching files and switching between rich-text and plain text when composing an email. But that’s about it.

I can tell you my favorite sequence of keyboard shortcuts. I get a lot of stuff that isn’t junk, but I don’t necessarily want to read all the time. Mostly newsletters and such. Plus, I’m kind of a neat freak and I don’t like ‘unread’ messages in my trash folder (I don’t know why). So here’s what I do… I use ‘Shift’+arrow down to highlight the messages I don’t want. Then I hit ‘k’ to mark them all read. Then I hit ‘Delete’ to send them all to the trash. That’s it 10 messages deleted in a matter of seconds and no mouse needed.

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Back in January, Brandon Savage told you about the great new feature that integrates real-time Chat & Mobile Text from directly within Yahoo! Mail Classic. Back in January it was a sneak peak, but now more and more of you are now able to use this great feature.

What if I don’t feel like Chatting?
I’ve been reading and listening to all of your comments, and a common question is, “How can I turn chat off?” The answer of course is, “Easily”. Here’s how…

All you have to do is click the drop-down box and select “Sign out of Chat”. Once you do this you will be signed out of Yahoo! Chat and Mobile Text. That’s it – you’re done. And, the next time you sign into mail, we’ll remember your status and you won’t be logged back into Chat until you set your status back to “Available”.

What else can I do?
Don’t forget to check out the ‘Settings’ menu too.

From the settings menu, you can customize some of the Chat & Mobile Text features to suit your preferences. You can change whether a sound should be played when you get a new Chat. And you can even move it down so that it sits underneath your folders, if you’d like your folders to appear above the chat module.

I encourage everyone to try out this terrific new feature of Yahoo! Mail Classic. It’s already a very popular feature in the All-new Yahoo! Mail. I’m sure that once you start using it, you’ll ask yourself how you lived without it before.

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This month in the UK, the Office of Fair Trade is promoting their annual Scams Awareness Month. In support of their efforts, I’ve posted some scam avoidance tips on the UK Mail Blog. Since they apply just as much across the pond as they do State-side, I wanted to share them with you too. The first step in helping you to stay scam-free is to recognize the types of scams that are out there. Here are the three most common types that come in email form (which I’m sure some of you have seen before):

1. Phishing scams – These are email scams that claim to be from an organization, like a bank, and they ask you click on a link which takes you to a Website that looks real but is, in fact, fake. When you log in with your account details and password on this fake site, the bad guys gain access to your private information.
2. Lottery Scams – These are emails that tell you have won a local or foreign lottery and to get the money you have to pay processing fees and send personal details.
3. Advance fee or fund transfer schemes – These are also called Nigerian ‘419’ scams where you receive an email, often times from someone claiming to be in Africa or Asia, and claiming that they have access to huge sums of cash but need your help getting it out of the country. In this scam, the criminal offers to send you a check for $100,000 and you send him back a personal check for $90,000 and keep the difference. The scam is, of course, that the initial check is bogus but may take several weeks to clear, by which point the criminal is long gone with your money.

You know what? Your bank will NEVER ask you for a password in an email, you have NOT won the lottery and all you end up with for those huge sums is a ZERO balance in your bank account. I’ve been collaborating with our Spam Czar, Mark, and we’ve come up with these tips to help you avoid the scammers:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – If someone stopped you on the street and said he needed your help smuggling millions of dollars out of the country, you’d be pretty suspicious. We recommend the same type of skepticism when you’re online. If you didn’t enter that Sweepstakes or Lottery, there’s no way that you won. Be extra suspicious if someone offers to send you money up front — as honest as I’m sure you are, that wealthy prince who offers to buy your iPod for 10 times its value isn’t as gullible as he seems.
2. Check the FROM line – One big giveaway is when a seemingly official message originates from a generic e-mail address. If your bank has something to say to you, it won’t come from “security_services_293@freemail.com,” and when the IRS discovers a tax error in your favor, they won’t write to you from a personal account like “charlotte.magnolia@internetonline.gr” Check the return address and make sure it looks legit (including looking for spelling errors!)
3. Beware if someone requests personal information or any payment over e-mail – Yahoo! and other respected Internet companies will never request your username or password over e-mail, and neither will your bank, credit card company, or insurance agency. If a message is asking you to e-mail your sensitive information, that’s an immediate red flag. Likewise, legitimate companies will not request money up front for you to claim a prize you’ve won.

For good measure I’m including some of the choicest scam emails we’ve seen in the recent past. By arming with yourselves with the knowledge of what scams are out there and how to avoid them, you’ll be much safer online. As always, if you do see one of these scams, please do your part and click the “Spam” button inside Yahoo! Mail – it’s the single strongest way to let us know so that we can block these terrible messages.

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As you may have heard, we’ve been working on a new smarter inbox to help make your life easier. We’re happy to announce that today, some of you will begin to experience the smarter inbox, and we wanted to give everyone a chance to see what it looks like and what it can do.

The smarter inbox experience features a new Yahoo! Mail Welcome Page which surfaces messages, information and activity updates you care about most, as well as an updated inbox and folder view that filters messages from your personal connections.

The smarter Yahoo! Mail inbox also gives you immediate access to relevant third-party applications like Flickr, Flixster and Xoopit allowing you to do much more, and be more efficient, all from within your inbox. Take a look now and let us know what you think!

- Yahoo! Mail Team

Update: We are conducting a very limited beta test right now of the open applications in Yahoo! Mail. Only our power users, who were invited into the limited beta, can test out the new applications at beta.mail.yahoo.com. We will be extending this beta test to additional users over the coming months.

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Back when I posted about updates to the Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop beta (get the latest version here) many people were intrigued. It was, after all, our first real step into the IMAP world, and it also represented a great way for users with multiple Yahoo! accounts to easily keep track of them without the dreaded logout-login-logout-login.

One of the more frequent comments from users had to do with something that we alluded to but was not yet supported … synchronizing your Yahoo! Contacts and Calendar with Zimbra.  Well the latest version, also dubbed “beta 5″, does just that.

To take advantage of the Calendar sync you will have to be on the new Yahoo! Calendar Beta (CalDav supported), but anyone should be able to sync their Contacts.  That was actually supported with a recent version, but I dropped the ball on announcing it.

After you have installed or updated your Zimbra software, go to the Account Setup link and then look for the link to Edit your account details.  You should see a whole bunch of fun Synchronization Settings to select.  Just like the first time you set up your Zimbra, it should take some time to populate.  But once it finishes the first sync it should be much faster.

If you run into problems you can head over to the Zimbra Desktop forums to give feedback or report issues.

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